Editor’s Note: Don’t be a reactionary troll from my title, read the article. According to a lot of men, the idea of a suitcase carrying woman in a pantsuit does not vibe well with the happy housewife image that is the conservative ideal. This accounts to many of the issues women with strong careers have with finding a peer (in business) to date and marry. Men aren’t necessarily looking for a “lesser” woman to marry but they are looking for a woman who fits into the mold of what is shown as the ideal. Donald Draper looks for Betty Draper not a Peggy Olson aka the career driven go-hard that’s pretty but focused on the prize. Sure this doesn’t account for every male who shies away from single professional women but it describes a healthy chunk of us that run for the hills when we… [Read more]

Are you the broke friend? It’s a simple question but it may not mean what you think it means. The broke friend oft times will annoy his other friends due to his belief that life sucks for him and him alone. The broke friend will listen to your advice but will rarely take it – despite how easy it is to get out of his financial hole. What we’re saying is that the broke friend title is earned through attitude more than it’s earn from your financial position. A cheap person that has money can be just as much the “broke friend” as can the guy that can barely pay his bills. It’s not an elitist title, it’s a “stop using money as your excuse to being a loser” title. Here’s the anatomy of the broke friend: Wants in on everything but can never afford… [Read more]

For as long as I can remember I’d spend no less than $10 a day for lunch. I justified the expense as a break from the office and would eat out daily without fail. I absolutely never took my lunch from home. This was my practice for more than a decade of my working life. Those days are gone. At $50 a week that quickly adds up: $50 week x 4 weeks = $200 month x12 months – give or take a two-week vacay, a few PTOs here and there, the occasional non-Dutch outing, office lunch and forgot your money fasts—and that’s $2,400 a year. Did I really eat $24,000 worth of lunches over 10 years? You better believe I did! Earlier this year I lost 50 pounds of the evidence. Let’s just say I gave new meaning to “penny wise pound foolish”. Okay, so… [Read more]

Why spend a mint on a huge wedding only to lead a life of hard grinding, a debt ceiling that is as tall as a cathedral and an unhappy wife/husband bitching about money? Now as your friend and/or family member we have to hear you complain about your financial situation and how hard it is to keep up… yet you have a double income coming in. Why didn’t you think of this before showing up everyone with your 6-figure wedding bash? How is it impressing people if they already know that you’re about to spend 10+ years in the trenches struggling and putting strain on your marriage by working a way out of the hole that you’ve put yourself in? Recently I went to the wedding of a good friend of mine and it was small, intimate and very cost-effective. The couple love and understand… [Read more]

More than likely as your business grows you will run into a client who claims that their last contractor ripped them off or didn’t finish the job. Something along those lines where they squarely put the blame on their last contractor. This is a huge red flag to me in business based on experience. While they may claim that their last contractor was terrible, they themselves turn out to be bad clients. What they don’t tell you about their last contractor is whether they (the client) paid what they were supposed to pay, whether or not they were clear with their instructions or whether or not their check bounced and they took their sweet time making it right. These are major things that would slow or stop any contractor in their work but you are never told that side of the story. All they want… [Read more]

I hate Christmas, well hate is a powerful word but I hate what Christmas does to people. For someone that hates pretentious ideals and things, seeing a holiday where people purposefully make themselves go broke is beyond depressing. It’s like a drug that we are all forced to take. DRINK THE EGGNOG BITCH! DRINK IT! December rolls in, people’s lights go up in decorations that spike their light bills, bills are forsaken in lieu of buying gifts for loved ones and for 30 days we pretend as if it’s all love. Harry Connick Jr. is singing his ass off on the radio right after the late great Nat King Cole. Carols are being played all over the place and the temperature drops. Some people take it as an opportunity to celebrate family and make their way “home” as hardcore as possible to see mom and… [Read more]

The title says it all, when you have a passion (which you should), oft times you don’t end up working in that field. While everyone is not entrepreneur material, it is a good idea to keep your focus squarely on what it is that you really want to do. Getting to that goal is it’s own article but what I do know is that the daily grind will blur ones vision. Before you know it you become that salty employee, mad that your co-worker makes $1,000 more than you and mad that your boss hasn’t acknowledged all the extra effort you’ve put in a month before your review (heh). What not to do at your job: Tell others your dream: Nothing is more of a buzz kill than telling your dreams to disgruntled employee guy. The pats on the back and encouragement that you seek… [Read more]

I’ve heard that even the late Mafia Boss of all Bosses Salvatore “Charles” Lucania absolutely hated his nickname “Lucky Luciano”. Nobody wants to be known as “Lucky”, we all want credit for what we’ve rightfully earned. One of my biggest pet peeves is the fact that there is no real attempt at empathizing with people who are assumed to have money. If you came from nothing, ground your way up to a sky-rise through your own blood, sweat and tears, people will still have the audacity to call you lucky. Oh he has nothing to complain about, he has all the money in the world, I wish I was that “lucky”, blah, blah, blah. It boils my blood to no end when I see, hear and read this feedback. The only thing that the guy who made it is lucky with is that he wasn’t stuck being… [Read more]